Gender-based Girl Scouts Do The Right Thing

I’ve been a Girl Scout since I was five years old, now at 29, I am a lifetime member. I haven’t been so proud of the Girl Scout organization, especially the Girl Scouts of Colorado, since I received my Gold Award from that council in 2000.

It’s well known that Girl Scouts is a national organization for girls. After some confusion this week, Girl Scouts made that definition even more clear: Girl Scouts is for anyone that identifies as a girl, including transgender children.

Earlier this week, Bobby Montoya from Denver, Colorado was denied membership to a Girl Scout troop by its leader. If you are wondering why this little girl was denied, it’s because Bobby is, anatomically, a boy. Since the age of two Bobby has insisted that she is a girl, so when she asked to join a Girl Scout troop, her Mom did what any other Mom would do and signed her up. The leader that was approached wasn’t sensitive to the difference between gender and sexuality and denied the membership.

Then Bobby’s mother went up the chain to the supervisors at Girl Scouts of Colorado. It didn’t take long for the officials to make a public statement.

“Girl Scouts is an inclusive organization and we accept all girls in Kindergarten through 12th grade as members, if a child identifies as a girl and the child’s family presents her as a girl, Girl Scouts of Colorado welcomes her as a Girl Scout.” – Girl Scouts of Colorado

The leader who denied Bobby, will be receiving sensitivity training and all other leaders will be trained about transgender girls as well. Bobby is welcome to join Girl Scouts and is waiting on a new troop to contact her for membership.

I know that as the mother of two boys that if either of them were to identify as a girl in the future, that I would definitely encourage them to join the inclusive environment of the Girl Scouts.